Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Football’ Category

As I watched Ohio State lose to Texas in the Fiesta Bowl, putting the finishing touches on the Big Ten’s current six-game BCS Bowl losing streak, I got to thinking. And when I get to thinking, that’s never a good thing.

One of the favorite semi-annual topics of conversation in the college football world is whether or not Notre Dame “deserves” its bowl bid. Oh sure, I could be a realist. I could point out to the armchair pundits that the college football post-season is little more than one game that matters plus 33 exhibition games. I could point out that this reality merits bowl organizers think about the economics of their bowl picks and thus they don’t take the Notre Dame brand lightly. I could point out that Notre Dame’s appearance in this season’s Hawaii Bowl garnered a 104% jump in television ratings and a 46% jump in attendance—the largest year-to-year increase of any 2008-09 post-season bowl and a Nielsen share and attendance figure exceeding this year’s ACC Championship game. Then again, I could just point to the Hawaii Bowl box score and ask if anyone still thinks Notre Dame didn’t deserve to be in that game.

What’s that? You’re talking about the larger bowl picture? About Notre Dame’s preferential treatment when it comes to the BCS Bowls? Okay then, I’ll bite on that conspiratorial load of crap as well.

The BCS bylaws state, and I quote,

Notre Dame will be guaranteed one of the at-large slots in a BCS bowl if it is ranked No. 8 or better in the final BCS standings.

This lone “Notre Dame clause” is usually what gets all the Irish haters’ panties in a bunch. Mark May, Michael Wilbon, Jason Whitlock, John Saunders, Jay Mariotti, any and all residents of the greater Ann Arbor area—they collude to weave this vast hypocritical tapestry that paints Notre Dame football as overrated and coddled by the BCS.

I’m not going to dispute the overrated part. I think it would be great if Notre Dame could be like Boston College or Purdue and always get invited to crappy bowls versus crappy opponents even when they’re good because nobody wants to see them play, but the reality is that any ounce of ND success on the gridiron gets bowl organizers’ mouths frothing. Notre Dame has never truly been above a Gator Bowl-quality team for the last 15 years, and yet there we we’ve been, time and again—overmatched in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl versus Oregon State, overmatched in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl versus Ohio State, and overmatched in the 2006 Sugar Bowl versus LSU.

Like I said, overrated—guilty as charged. But coddled? Give me a freaking break.

These are the facts, and they are indisputable:

FACT #1 – In the 11-season history of the BCS, 10 teams with three or more losses have played in BCS bowls.

FACT #2 – Since 1996, Notre Dame has never been extended an invitation to the Rose, Fiesta, Orange or Sugar Bowls after three or more regular season losses.

FACT #3 – In the 11-season history of the BCS, 19 teams ranked outside the Top 8—the minimum threshold ND is required to meet for any automatic BCS bid—have played in BCS bowls.

FACT #4 – Of the 19 BCS Bowl teams since 1998 ranked outside the Top 8, 13 were ranked outside the Top 10, four were ranked outside the Top 20, and two were unranked.

Simply put, one or two conference champions EVERY YEAR have not met the standard applied to Notre Dame by the BCS rules, and yet the media is strangely compliant. When an 8-4 Florida State goes to the Sugar Bowl, they say, “Sorry folks, those are the rules.” When an 8-3 Stanford loses to Texas by 62 points and to San Jose State (at home) but still manages to coast through a weak Pac Ten, they can’t see past the coach’s skin color to acknowledge his team as an undeserving paper tiger. When an 8-3 Purdue gets rewarded a Rose Bowl for essentially sucking the least in the Big Ten, they pat the conference commissioners on the back and say, “It could be worse.” And then, in the 2008-09 bowl season it is worse, as college football fans watch a half-full Orange Bowl pair two teams, Virginia Tech and Cincinnati, whose collective BCS rankings are lower than the TCU-Boise State matchup in the oh-so-storied Humanitarian Bowl.

Is it too much to ask for an ounce of journalistic integrity? How is that a 9-4 Virginia Tech is merely “playing by the rules” when they accept their bogus 2009 Orange Bowl invite, while a 10-2 Notre Dame is the subject of every conceivable are-they-deserving and ND-doesn’t-matter editorial hatchet job? Just a suggestion, but perhaps the ESPN-fueled peanut gallery needs to first get off its high horse before telling the ND faithful to get off ours.

I’m not asking you guys to like Notre Dame—that’s never going to happen. But it would be nice to see a modicum of acknowledgment that you’re as full of shit as we are. It would be nice on just one Saturday evening to turn on ESPN College Gameday and not have the urge to send my fist through Mark May’s chest cavity.

Happy New Year!

Go Irish!

Here’s another set of Hawaii Bowl highlights from the Honolulu Advertiser this time.

There were quite a few heroes from last night’s Hawaii Bowl win.  Here’s a look at who were the stars of the show for the Irish as they broke the 9 game bowl losing streak.

• Jimmy Clausen - Had by far his best game as a collegiate quarterback.  Clausen finished 22 of 26 for 401 yards with 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.  The 401 yards and 5 touchdowns were both Notre Dame bowl game records.  All four of Clausen’s drops hit Notre Dame receivers in the hands.  He had all day to throw for the most part and given that time he was as accurate as I’ve ever seen a Notre Dame quarterback.  This game should do wonders for his confidence which was likely shaken after a very rough four game stretch to end the season.
• Golden Tate - Tate lit up the Hawaii secondary to the tune of 177 yards on 6 catches for 3 touchdowns.  He also had a spectacular punt return for a touchdown that was called back because of a roughing the punter penalty.  The return was the first time this year that Tate really made something happen in the punt return game.  He is still very rough around the edges in the technical aspects of playing wide receiver like route running, but his skills are pretty undeniable.  If he can continue to improve on his fundamentals this off-season, he’s going to be one of the better wide receivers in college football next year.
• Kyle Rudolph - It’s amazing how much better this offense works when the Irish attack the middle of the field with Rudolph.  The freshman tight end had 4 catches for 78 yards including a huge fourth down catch in the first half.  Rudolph has an extremely bright future ahead of him and the Hawaii Bowl performance was just a sign of things to come.
• Armando Allen - It’s also amazing that Notre dame had went 6 years without a kick return for a touchdown before Allen took one 96 yards yesterday.  He also added a receiving touchdown and flashed the speed we have all been waiting to see in the return game.
• Ethan Johnson - Originally Johnson was credited with 3 sacks in the game, but when I went back to look at the stats today, he was credited with 2.  Regardless of how many sacks he was credited with, Johnson was a disruptive force in the pass rush.  Johnson was playing a lot on the inside of the line in 4 man fronts in the nickel packages throughout the game and seemed to get good pressure from both inside and off the edge.  We’ve been waiting for a game like this from Johnson all year and hopefully its just the first of many.
• Darius Fleming - Fleming saw a lot of action in the nickel packages and spent a lot of the night in the Hawaii backfield.  He saw more and more playing time as the season progressed this year and could very well step into a starting role next year.
• Steve Quinn - Quinn came out of no where to register 2 sacks in his final game with the Irish.  Quinn was all over the field and was in on more action than Maurice Crum whom he was spelling.

For those of you who may have missed last night’s Hawaii Bowl due to Christmas Eve obligations, here are some highlights from the 49-21 win over Hawaii.

Ethan Johnson has gotten a lot of playing time for a true freshman this year, but it wasn’t until Wednesday night that he really emerged.  Against Hawaii last night, Johnson recorded three of Notre Dame’s eight sacks and spent most of the night in the Hawaii backfield.

Johnson is going to be counted on to step into a starting role next year with the graduations of Pat Kuntz and Justin Brown so his big game is a very promising sign that he’ll be able to do just that.

It’s been a while since Notre Dame has had a legit pass rushing threat. Justin Tuck was the last defensive end to provide the Irish with a consistent pass rush.  If Wednesday nigth is any indication though, it looks as though Johnson might be capable of providing the Irish defense with that same pass rush.

Before we get too carried away though, Hawaii’s pass protection has been awful all season.  Hawaii had given up 49 sacks heading into the game giving them 57 sacs allowed on the season after Notre Dame’s eight sack effort.  Any time a defensive end gets you three sacks as a true freshman though it’s a very promising sign.

Now if we can just get a couple of Johnson’s defensive line classmates to emerge this off-season, we could have the makings of a very good young defense next year.

We all know that the bowl losing streak ended at 9 tonight with Notre Dame’s 49-21 victory over Hawaii.  That wasn’t the only dubious streak that we ended tonight though.

It had been 6 years since Notre Dame last reutrned a kickoff for a touchdown before Armano Allen took a 3rd quarter kickoff 96 yards for a score.  Before Allen’s first career special teams touchdown, the last kick Notre Dame returned for a touchdown game on a 92 yard return by Vontez Duff against Navy in 2002.

Allen was banged up coming into this game, but he looked faster than ever tonight on kickoffs and catching the ball out of the backfield.

Hopefully this is the first of many kick returns for scores for Allen.

Jimmy Clausen is having a career day today and we’re only at half time.  At the half way point of the Hawaii Bowl, Clausen has completed 18 of 21 passes for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’s been down right dominant and nearly flawless in carving up the Hawaii defense.  All three of Clausen’s incompletions have come on drops while he’s been more accurate than we’ve seen him in his 2 years at Notre Dame.

Clausen isn’t looking anything like the QB we saw in the second half of the season who turned the ball over more than he put it in the end zone.  Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Clausen and will propel him into next season with a lot of momentum.

The 300 passing yards is already a Notre Dame bowl record eclipsing Brady Quinn’s 286 yards in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl.  If his second half is anything like his first, I think it’s safe to say he’ll probably break another Notre Dame bowl record or two

Golden Tate had 136 of Clausen’s 300 passing yards which is also a Notre Dame record breaking Maurice Stovall’s mark of 124 in that same Fiesta Bowl.

Notre Dame is playing tonight with names on their jerseys for the first time since the 1988 (1987 season) Cotton Bowl.   While this is the first time in 21 years since names have appeared on the Notre Dmae jerseys, this used to be a tradition during Ara Parseghian’s tenure as head coach.  Under Ara, the Irish would not have names on the back of their jerseys during the season, but would for bowl games.

Players get to keep their jerseys from bowl so this is another nice way for them to end the year.

Charlie Weis is doing something he’s never done at Notre Dame tonight - coaching from the booth as opposed to coaching on the sidelines.  The reason he’s made the move is because of the pain associated with his two surgery-needing knees.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  A coach like Weis who is known for his x’s and o’s could really benefit from coaching from the booth - especially since he is calling the plays tonight.  Coaching from the booth is very advantageous from a play calling perspective because it gives you a much better view of the defensive alignments.

This isn’t the first time Weis has coached from the booth in his career though.  When he was the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, Weis coached from the booth while Drew Bledsoe was the starting QB.  He moved to the sidelines when Bledsoe got hurt and Tom Brady took over as the starting QB.

So much for all of those conspiracy theories that Weis and Haywood were not getting a long as the season progressed.  Tim Prister interviewed Haywood about being named the head coach at Miami and not only did Haywood give Weis credit for his opportunity, but he gave his soon to be former employer some high praise.

“He’s one of the finest men in college football. He’s one of the true family men in college football, and he does a tremendous job of balancing football with his family.

“Notre Dame is on the rise, and I think Notre Dame will have a great season next year under the tutelage and direction of Coach Weis. I couldn’t ask for a better guy as a mentor. He has been an unbelievable mentor for me over the last four years and has been instrumental in me getting this job today.”

Those are some pretty glowing remarks from Haywood for Weis.  Haywood didn’t have to be as gracious towards Weis on his way and it certainly makes it seem like the rumors of Haywood and Weis being at odds were extremely exaggerated.

It’s nice to see Haywood, as a former Irish coach and player, get the opportunity he’s been given and be as classy as he’s been on the way out.

Good luck to Haywood at Miami - especially since its never a bad thing to have a young coach with deep ties to Notre Dame have success.